By Trevor Tolley

How should we approach the Lord’s table every week? This seems like a very important question. We do not want to approach the Lord wrongly. Fortunately Scripture offers insight.

Consider, for example, when Isaiah was brought into the throne room
of God.

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two wings they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of His glory” (Isaiah 6:1-3).

Why do the seraphs have two wings to cover their faces? We assume they need the wings to shield themselves from the gaze and glory of God. In other words, the creatures whom God created to continuously minister to him, must have wings to shield or cover themselves from God’s presence.

And so we must consider at Communion, what will we use as a covering?

Scripture teaches there is only one covering sufficient to remove our sins from God’s presence: the blood of Jesus Christ. Ephesians 3:12 says, “In him [Christ] and through faith in him [Christ] we may approach God with freedom and confidence.”

The shed blood of Jesus Christ is central to Communion. To remember his shed blood is why we come to this table. Christ’s shed blood is also how we are able to come to this table. The Lord’s shed blood is both the reason and the means for what we do during Communion.

________________

Trevor Tolley is a high school teacher at Tree of Life Christian Schools in Columbus, Ohio, and serves as an elder at Worthington (Ohio) Christian Church.

By Mark A. Taylor

Every year at Christmastime I look for a way to give something to someone who can’t or won’t give me anything in return. Usually this means an extra offering to a favorite mission, a check written to a local shelter, or gifts purchased for our church’s project to “provide Christmas” for needy children.
I do this because it’s always seemed to me that exchanged gifts are trades, not really gifts. They’re fun, and they can be a good part of office or family celebrations. But true generosity doesn’t happen with rules about dollar limits or gift categories. Nor does it flourish when my gift simply creates pressure or expectation for the recipient to buy something for me.

I suppose I’ve felt satisfied with this approach, because it is a step outside the world’s attitude toward holiday shopping.

But the material in this issue convinces me I have many more steps to take.

The first step is to realize that poverty is not a curse or a punishment, that scores of urban ghetto dwellers are not there because of their own laziness or lack of integrity.

Yes, I agree that disintegrating family structures and failing inner-city schools are breeding generations programmed to survive on government programs and holiday handouts. But this is all the more reason to consider what we can do beyond occasional spurts of generosity.

Several of those writing or interviewed in this issue have begun the hard work of solving systemic problems instead of just temporarily alleviating difficult symptoms.

Their example leads us to a second step, and that is to commit to some long-term solutions. And those solutions will inevitably lead to building relationships with those who need help to find their way out of poverty. It’s not a surprise, then, that you’ll see that word relationship again and again in this issue.

Many these days are realizing that relationships are a key to every kind of transformation. Missional leaders urge us to build friendships with our neighbors in order to create a path that may lead them to Christ. Recovery experts tell us no addict gets sober alone.

And those who have known nothing but poverty will not see another way unless someone loves them enough and long enough to walk with them to a better life.

We won’t do this until we look again at ourselves and realize there’s more than one kind of poverty. In God’s eyes, our “righteousness is as filthy rags,” as ugly as any worn by a homeless person on city streets. As LeRoy Lawson puts it in one of this month’s book reviews: “It’s where our poverty of being meets with their poverty of means that real ministry takes place.”

Pondering that truth may be the best gift I’ll receive this Christmastime.

By Trevor Tolley

A picture of the Old Testament sacrificial system isn’t pretty. Scripture says blood from the sacrificed animals was to be sprinkled on the altar, on the utensils used for the sacrifice, on the priestly garments, on the mercy seat of the ark of the covenant, even on the people. This symbolized the necessity of blood to cleanse them of their sins.

Not many of us would use blood as a cleaning agent, and we certainly would not use it as laundry detergent. In fact, when we get blood on our clothes, we struggle to find something that will get the blood out. We even say we do not want the blood to stain our clothes. So why does God use blood as an illustration for a cleanser?

While we might understand why Old Testament Jews would miss the idea that blood was for cleaning, we have no excuse for misunderstanding this imagery. Medical science teaches us that one of blood’s primary roles in our bodies is to cleanse us, to take away the carbon dioxide, the urea, the uric acid, and other toxins that build up in our bodies. The heart pumps blood through the lungs, where red blood cells pick up oxygen. The blood cells take the oxygen to other cells throughout the body, dropping off oxygen in exchange for toxins, which are then carried to the kidneys to be cleaned.

On the night Jesus was betrayed, Christ took the cup in the presence of his followers. The fruit of the vine in the cup represented Jesus’ blood that was necessary for the removal of sins. However, following the pattern of the Old Testament, one might have
expected Jesus to dip his fingers in the fruit of the vine, representing his blood, and to sprinkle it on the table and his followers. But, instead, he drank it. Why? To understand this, we must recognize that the blood of animals sprinkled on the people was not really capable of saving anyone from his sins. What does change us, transform us, and cleanse us from sin, is Christ living in us.

Colossians 1:27 explains, “To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (author’s emphasis).

We come to the Lord’s table to celebrate Christ in us, our hope of glory, and the One who has cleansed us of our sin.

________________

Trevor Tolley serves as Bible department head and science teacher with Tree of Life Christian High School in Columbus, Ohio. 

By Diane Stortz

Long before digital photos and decorative paper backgrounds, Mary made the first Christmas scrapbook—in her heart.

When Bethlehem’s shepherds heard the astounding news that the Messiah had been born, they left their sheep and hurried into the village to see him. They found Mary and Joseph and with them the baby, snuggly wrapped in strips of cloth, lying in a feeding trough—just as the angel had told them. Luke says they “told everyone what had happened and what the angel had said to them about this child. All who heard the shepherds’ story were astonished, but Mary kept all these things in her heart and thought about them often” (Luke 2:17-19).*

Mary kept her treasured Christmas memories—visits from angels, travel to a distant town, giving birth when she was yet a virgin, shepherds kneeling beside her newborn’s crib—in her heart. What are your Christmas memories, and where do you keep them?

I will guess that your memories involve family—the one you grew up in, the family you raised or are raising now. Somewhere a box or a book holds ornaments children made, a fading photo of your family in front of a lighted tree, and Christmas cards received long ago. Somehow the day set aside in the fourth century to mark and celebrate the birth of Christ has also become a day—a season, really—to mark and celebrate family bonds. “Over the river and through the woods, to Grandmother’s house we go. . . .”

Not everyone has happy Christmas memories. Or maybe this Christmas is difficult for you. Circumstances might not be good; people you love might be too far away.

But when believers meet as family—adopted sons and daughters of God, brothers and sisters of the Savior—we can make the best kind of Christmas memory as we eat the bread and drink the cup together. The baby in the manger came to set us free. “This is my body, which is given for you,” Jesus said (1 Corinthians 11:24). “This cup is the new covenant between God and his people—an agreement confirmed with my blood. Do this to remember me” (v. 25).

________

*All Scripture verses are from the New Living Translation.

 ________________

Diane Stortz is a freelance editor and the author of the best-selling Bible storybook The Sweetest Story Bible (Zonderkidz). She blogs about the Bible at www.abibleplace.blogspot.com.

By H. Lynn Gardner

Doctors told me I would die of my pulmonary fibrosis if I did not get a lung transplant. On June 15, 2004, I received a double lung transplant and have been blessed with a 10-year extension on life with my wife, family, and friends, as well as continuing some teaching and writing.

Do you think I am grateful for this gift? I have been saved from death and received a new lease of life. I have tried to thank God every day for this gift of life.

Unsaved persons face the prospect of death without hope and eternal separation from God in the afterlife.
If you have accepted Christ as your Savior, you have been saved by the grace of God. We must not foolishly feel we deserve salvation. None of us deserves it. We must not take our salvation for granted. Let us be grateful and rejoice that God has granted us this wonderful gift.

Worship is a grateful response to God for who he is and what he has done. In our observance of the Lord’s Supper, we offer our grateful response to God for our salvation in Christ. How often during this last week did you thank God for your salvation? How often should I thank my wife, Barbara, for the meals she prepares? Every time! Some people think it would get old having the Lord’s Supper every week. Gathering around the Lord’s table every week as a body of believers is a checkpoint reminding each of us to express our gratitude to God. It never gets old thanking God for our salvation.

Do you feel grateful to God for forgiveness of your sins, your new life in Christ, your hope of Heaven? We don’t want to go through the motions of partaking of the bread and fruit of the vine as unthinking robots. We want to be heartfelt, grateful worshippers.

Paul reminds us why we should be grateful: “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God” (Romans 5:1, 2; English Standard Version, author emphasis). Christ died for us and saved us by his blood and by his life. “We also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation” (Romans 5:11, ESV, author emphasis).

Lynn Gardner is a retired Bible college professor and academic dean.

By Diane Stortz

Planning Christmas get-togethers, especially family celebrations, can be challenging. Everyone’s busy. Some family and friends live far away. Some don’t get along. So if we invite Aunt Suzy, perhaps we shouldn’t invite Cousin Mabel this year. . . .

It wasn’t like that the first Christmas. Everyone was invited. God saw to that.

Mary and Joseph arrived in Bethlehem with other travelers coming to be counted in the Roman census. The temporary shelter set up for these travelers was full. Mary and Joseph lodged for the night in a stable, maybe near the shelter or at the home of one of Joseph’s relatives. Either way, they were among ordinary folk, everyday people.

Shepherds heard the news from angels and came to see the baby. Dirty, smelling like sheep, considered “unclean” and unable to go into the synagogue, shepherds were scorned, the outcasts of their day.

Magi of the East saw a star and knew that Jesus had been born. A prophecy in the book of Numbers might have made its way east when the Jews were exiled in Babylon hundreds of years before: “I see him, but not here and now. I perceive him, but far in the distant future. A star will rise from Jacob; a scepter will emerge from Israel” (Numbers 24:17*). However they learned about Jesus, the magi were men of wealth, judging by the gold, frankincense, and myrrh they brought to Jesus.

Evil King Herod and the proud religious rulers heard about Jesus’ birth when the magi arrived in Jerusalem. They consulted the Scriptures, but they rejected the opportunity to greet and worship God’s Son.

Ordinary people, outcasts, the wealthy, the powerful—all were invited to worship Jesus—because God planned it that way.

It is the same when believers gather for Communion. Everyone is invited—ordinary people, outcasts, the wealthy, the powerful. Our Father planned it this way. There is no rank around the table. Communion must be observed in a manner that honors the body of our Lord—his physical body, broken for us, and his body the church, formed of believers “from every tribe and language and people and nation” (Revelation 5:9).

The only credentials anyone needs around the Communion table are faith in Jesus and the willingness to examine ourselves and our relationships with one another (1 Corinthians 11:29). How we view one another matters to God, because he’s invited everyone.

________

 *All Scripture verses are from the New Living Translation.

 ________________

Diane Stortz is a freelance editor and the author of the best-selling Bible storybook The Sweetest Story Bible (Zonderkidz). She blogs about the Bible at www.abibleplace.blogspot.com.

By Diane Stortz

We rightly associate faith in Christ with new beginnings—but because of Jesus we can have new endings too.

Heaven is a new ending, of course. Death won’t be the final chapter! But what about new endings while we’re here on earth?

When Jesus left his home in Nazareth and began to teach and preach, he chose to announce his mission by reading aloud a passage from the book of Isaiah. It begins, “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners” (Isaiah 61:1).

Healing, freedom, and restoration! Isn’t that what we need? Life on earth is not the way God created it to be. We’ve all been wounded by Satan, by the sins of others, or by our own bad choices. But Jesus came to heal and restore. Picture setting a broken bone and holding it in place with a cast until new growth occurs.

Paul wrote, “Let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think” (Romans 12:2, New Living Translation). When we know Jesus, we begin to think differently. As our thinking changes, what we do changes. And when what we do changes, we literally write new endings to our stories.

Have you experienced new endings in your life? What kind of ending are you currently writing? Do you need a new one? Life doesn’t have to stay the same. When we know Jesus, life shouldn’t stay the same.

At Communion we remember Jesus the way he asked us to. He said the bread represents his broken body and the cup represents his blood, poured out to seal a new agreement between God and us. Brokenhearted? He heals and helps us grow. Captive? He sets us free. Trapped in dark places? He transfers us to his kingdom of light. Jesus lived and died to help us write powerful new endings.

Diane Stortz is a freelance editor and the author of A Woman’s Guide to Reading the Bible in a Year (Bethany House), which will be available in January. She lives in Cincinnati, Ohio.

By H. Lynn Gardner

Jesus shared flesh and blood with us.

Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted (Hebrews 2:17, 18)*.

Timothy Keller explains, in The Reason for God,

Christianity alone among the world religions claims that God became uniquely and fully human in Jesus Christ and therefore knows firsthand despair, rejection, loneliness, poverty, bereavement, torture, and imprisonment. On the cross he went beyond even the worst human suffering and experienced cosmic rejection and pain that exceeds ours as infinitely as his knowledge and power exceeds ours.

Because Jesus suffered in the flesh, we have a high priest and advocate who can sympathize with us in our weaknesses and sufferings. We do not come to the table as perfect people. We often come hurting, rejected, struggling, suffering, and sinful.

Our God is not cold, distant, and unfeeling. On the cross he suffered in love, identifying with us in our human situation. He is approachable, caring, and compassionate. While Jesus did not succumb to sin, he did feel the full power of temptation. He experienced the gamut of suffering. He knows what it feels like to hurt both physically and emotionally.

We come to the Lord’s table as persons saved by grace, but strugglers with temptation and sin. Our Lord understands and is our sympathetic high priest.

To those troubled with the question, “Why does God let me suffer?” Paul reminds us, “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:32). Keller says, “He had to pay for our sins so that someday he can end evil and suffering without ending us.”

Our heavenly Father suffers when we suffer. He cares for us and asks that we cast our cares on him. We may never know why we experience a specific suffering. But in the light of Christ’s suffering and death on the cross, we should never doubt his love and care for us.

As we gather at his table, our caring host sympathizes with our personal challenges. We need to share our hurts and challenges and confess the sin in our lives. We need to affirm our trust, commitment, and love to him, knowing he is with us even in our worst sufferings.

Communion can be a time of repentance from sin, inner cleansing, renewal of our spirit, and reassurance of God’s personal love and compassion for us.

________

*Scripture quotations are from the English Standard Version of the Bible.

For  information about H. Lynn Gardner’s  book Where Is God When We Suffer?, visit www.lynngardner.info. 

By H. Lynn Gardner

Modern Jews eat the Passover meal much the same as God instructed through Moses thousands of years ago. At one point in the ceremonial meal the youngest in the company asks, “Why is this night different from all other nights? What does this mean?”

The leader responds, “We celebrate tonight because we were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt, and the Lord our God delivered us with a mighty hand. Had not the Holy One, blessed be he, redeemed our fathers from Egypt, we, our children, and our children’s children would have remained slaves.”

Moses wrote, “And when your children say to you, ‘What do you mean by this service?’ you shall say, ‘It is the sacrifice of the Lord’s Passover, for he passed over the houses of the people of Israel in Egypt, when he struck the Egyptians but spared our houses’” (Exodus 12:26, 27*).

Moses instructed, “You shall tell your son on that day, ‘It is because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt’” (Exodus 13:8). He said it would be a memorial for them. “And when in time to come your son asks you, ‘What does this mean?’ you shall say to him, ‘By a strong hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt, from the house of slavery’” (Exodus 13:14).

God planned the regular observance of the Passover meal so his people would not forget what he had done for them. It helped them remember how God saved his people from Egyptian slavery.

Fast-forward to today as we observe the Communion or the Lord’s Supper.

A young child asks, “How is the Lord’s Supper different from all other meals? What does it mean?”

Jesus asked his followers to observe the Lord’s Supper so we would continue to remember him. The Passover angel saved the firstborn of the Israelites. Christ is our Passover (1 Corinthians 5:7) who saved us from our sins. The unleavened bread reminds us Jesus allowed his body to be sacrificed, and the fruit of the vine reminds us he shed his blood so our sins could be forgiven. By taking the Lord’s Supper, we and Christian people all over the world show our belief that Christ died for our sins.

Meaningful participation in the Lord’s Supper each week prevents us from forgetting. It refreshes in our memories the debt we owe Christ because he died for us.

(I presented this meditation at church with my youngest grandchild speaking the questions. We were dressed in biblical-style robes.)

________

*All Scripture quotations are from the English Standard Version of the Bible.

H. Lynn Gardner’s website is www.lynngardner.info.

By H. Lynn Gardner

“On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them” (Acts 20:7*). “And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers” (Acts 2:42).

Luke says the central purpose for assembling is “to break bread,” which underscores its primary importance (Acts 20:7). The church observed the Lord’s Supper on the first day of the week. Early Christian writers say this was because Jesus rose from the dead on the first day of the week.

Comments from early Christian writers about the worship assembly are few. But here are two references from the mid-second century.

The Didache states, “Having earlier confessed your sins so that your sacrifice may be pure, come together each Lord’s day, break bread, and give thanks” (14:1).

Justin Martyr writes in his First Apology,

And on the day called Sunday there is a gathering together in the same place of all who live in a city or a rural district. The memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits. Then when the reader ceases, the president in a discourse admonishes and urges the imitation of these good things. Next we all rise together and send up prayers. And, as I said before, when we cease from our prayer, bread is presented and wine and water. The president in the same manner sends up prayers and thanksgivings according to his ability, and the people sing out their assent saying the “Amen.” A distribution and participation of the elements for which thanks have been given is made to each person, and to those who are not present it is sent by the deacons. Those who have means and are willing, each according to his own choice, gives what he wills, and what is collected is deposited with the president. He provides for the orphans and widows, those who are in want on account of sickness or some other causes, those who are in bonds and strangers who are sojourning, and in a word he becomes the protector of all who are in need (Apology I, 67).

In Early Christians Speak, church historian Everett Ferguson says, “From the surviving accounts we find the following acts in early Christian worship: Scripture reading, preaching, [singing,] praying, partaking of the Lord’s Supper, and giving.” He notes, “The Lord’s Supper was not celebrated on Saturday in earliest times, and only later did liturgical practice reach back to Saturday with special preparatory services.”

_________

*All Scripture quotations are from the English Standard Version of the Bible.

H. Lynn Gardner’s website is www.lynngardner.info.

By H. Lynn Gardner

Partaking of the Lord’s Supper is not a meaningless routine ritual. We must partake thoughtfully, and with our minds engaged. Communion should be one of the richest and most meaningful experiences of our week.

1. We remember Christ’s sacrifice on our behalf.
“Do this in remembrance of me” (1 Corinthians 11:24*). Lest we think we deserve God’s favor, lest we forget what Christ did for us, we are regularly reminded of the price paid for our salvation. The cross of Christ is not an insignificant fact from the storeroom of history. We are remembering and savoring the meaning of the most pivotal event in human history.

2. We participate in the benefits of his blood shed for us.
“The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?” (1 Corinthians 10:16). In the Lord’s Supper, Christ shares the meal with us, and we have fellowship with him because we share the new life his death achieved.

3. We proclaim our faith in the saving benefit of our Lord’s death and in his coming again.
“For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes” (1 Corinthians 11:26). Making it a priority to gather around the Lord’s table each Lord’s Day declares to all that we believe Christ died for our sins and that he is coming again.

4. We affirm our unity and solidarity with fellow believers in the body of Christ.
We “come together” (1 Corinthians 11:20). “We all partake of the one bread” (1 Corinthians 10:17). Meals can bring people into closer relationships. Partaking of the Lord’s Supper reminds us we belong to Christ and we belong to one another as fellow believers in Christ’s worldwide community.

5. We give thanks for Christ being our substitute sacrifice.
Communion is not a repeat of his sacrifice. Christ was “offered once to bear the sins of many” (Hebrews 9:28). The offering that occurs in Communion is our offering of thanks. We express our appreciation for Christ’s sacrifice.

6. We examine ourselves so we can purify our motives and direct our thoughts to meaningfully commune with our Lord.
“Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup” (1 Corinthians 11:27, 28).

*All Scripture quotations are from the English Standard Version of the Bible.

Lynn Gardner is a retired Bible college professor and academic dean.

By C. Robert Wetzel

“Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!” (Revelation 5:12).

How strange it must have seemed to pagans when Christians described Jesus as the Lamb of God! This would be especially true when they heard Jesus described as the Word who was with God and who was God and who became flesh in Jesus Christ. God, a lamb? If the pagan were to use an animal metaphor to describe God, he would certainly choose some powerful animal whose image would strike terror in its worshipers.

Malcolm Muggeridge, the English skeptic, was only along the road to faith when he wrote Jesus Rediscovered. He tells about spending time at a Cistercian abbey. After a Communion service he went for a walk on a hill above the abbey. It was lambing season, and as he saw the young lambs frisking about he thought,

. . . words I had just heard—Agnus Dei—echoed in my mind. What a terrific moment in history that was, I reflected, when men first saw their God in the likeness of the weakest, mildest, and most defenseless of all living creatures!

I dare say that when he came to recognize Jesus was in fact God incarnate, he might have put it differently. After all, the historical event was God revealing himself, not humans discovering him. But the wonder is still there in his recognition. It was a terrific time in history when God revealed himself in the likeness of the weakest, mildest, and most defenseless of all living creatures: a lamb. Yes, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world!

Although Jesus’ countrymen would have understood the imagery of the sacrificial lamb, they did not seem to associate their understanding of the promised Messiah with a lamb. Rather he was to be the Lion of Judah, the military chieftain who would restore Israel to the independence and glory of the reigns of David and Solomon.

As it turned out Jesus was paradoxically both the Lamb of God and the Lion of Judah. In his death he would be the sacrificial Lamb that takes away our sin, and in his resurrection he would be the Lion King who conquers death and who rules as head of the church until all things come under submission to him.

In the Lord’s Supper we celebrate both the forgiveness we have received through the sacrificial death of Christ and our new citizenship as members of his body, the church, the redeemed of God who will reign with him for ever and ever. Amen!

C. Robert Wetzel is chancellor at Emmanuel Christian Seminary, Johnson City, Tennessee. 

By C. Robert Wetzel

“The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ?” (1 Corinthians 10:16, King James Version).

There are so many rich meanings and experiences in the Lord’s Supper! When the apostle Paul spoke of the “cup of blessing” he used a term that had a special meaning for those who understood Jewish dinner tradition. At the end of a Jewish meal the most honored guest at the table took the cup, lifted it up, and said the benediction. Today when we talk of the benediction we probably think of the “closing prayer” to an occasion of worship. But, of course, the English word benediction is simply derived from the Latin word meaning “blessing.”

It is a powerful picture. When we come to the Lord’s table a prayer of blessing is prayed for the cup that we are about to drink. But at the same time we know we are going to be blessed in our drinking of the cup—that somehow we are communing with or participating in the blood of Christ.

I am reminded once again that his blood was shed for me, and that somehow I must be willing to participate in his ongoing sacrifice. It may be as simple as being reminded that some of the difficulties I am experiencing are not occasions of self-pity or resentment. Rather, they are a part of what it means to serve Christ. His blood not only saves me from my past sins, it sustains me in the service I give him. And therefore, rather than being drained by the service I give, I am blessed.

The notion of blessing also carries with it an act of thanksgiving. Hence some translations of 1 Corinthians 10:16 speak of “the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks.” It is from this understanding that some Christian traditions refer to the Lord’s Supper as the Eucharist, an English word that is derived from the Greek word for “thanksgiving.” We give thanks for the cup because it is a constant reminder of what Christ has done for us.

We have often been reminded at Easter that for Christians every Lord’s Day is an occasion to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. We could also say that every Lord’s Day is Thanksgiving. It is an occasion to give thanks and be thankful. It is an occasion to bless and be blessed. And this is why it is a benediction, a blessing that sends us back to our daily responsibilities with a renewed sense of being a part of the body of Christ.

C. Robert Wetzel is chancellor at Emmanuel Christian Seminary, Johnson City, Tennessee. 

By David Ray

It’s March, when college basketball takes center stage and provokes spirited debate about who will make it into tournament play. Team records wrangle for attention, brackets are set, and fierce competition begins.

We get very passionate about who wins and loses. Winning brings bragging rights for fans, revenue for schools, and even professional signing opportunities for the greatest players. For a coach, however, losing badly can mean forfeiting an extended contract or finding a moving van parked in the driveway.

Who wants to be last? The disciples of Jesus certainly didn’t! Once, after a long day, Jesus asked them: “What were you arguing about on the road?” (Mark 9:33). The next verse says they “kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest.” Then, “Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, ‘Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all’” (Mark 9:35). “For it is the one who is least among you all who is the greatest” (Luke 9:48).

You would think the disciples eventually would have learned this lesson, since it was repeated and modeled so often by Christ. But as the Twelve gathered for a last supper in Jerusalem, a spirit of competition elbowed its way in once again—even after Jesus humbly washed their feet and told them he was about to die for them. With the taste of the bread and wine still fresh on their lips, Luke records, “A dispute also arose among them as to which of them was considered to be the greatest” (Luke 22:24).

Jesus, once more, had to set matters straight. He told them, “The greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves” (Luke 22:26). Then he added, “I am among you as one who serves” (v. 27).

We argue about our place in life, too, don’t we? Sometimes we even bring that attitude to this table around which we are now gathered—just like the first disciples did. We look around and compare ourselves to each other. We even wonder which ones Jesus might love the most, while all along he wishes we would learn the all-important lesson that it’s not about clamoring to be first, but choosing to be last. It’s not about who wins, but who willingly loses.

It’s true that being last won’t get you a cushy coaching job or a place in “The Final Four,” but the kingdom of God has never been about competition, but about a cross. It’s not about a greatest win, but a greatest sacrifice.

David Ray serves as dean of Cincinnati (Ohio) Bible Seminary and professor of practical ministries at Cincinnati Christian University. 

By C. Robert Wetzel

“We believe that Jesus died and rose again” (1 Thessalonians 4:14).

In a very real sense, participating in the Lord’s Supper is preaching. Preaching is proclamation. The apostle Paul tells us, “For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes” (1 Corinthians 11:26). And thus we are proclaiming to the world what we first confessed when we came to Christ, “I believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

There are at least three ways the Lord’s Supper may be proclamation.

It may be a reaffirmation of our own faith. There are likely times when we come to the Lord’s table with doubts and fears. It may have been one of those weeks in which nothing seemed to go right or make sense. Then we come to the Lord’s table and we hear the words, “This is my body given for you.” And we hear the proclamation anew that first penetrated our hearts when we came to Christ: “God became flesh in Jesus Christ and gave himself for my salvation.” We hear the words, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.” Once again we realize that through the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ we are a part of the body of Christ. And then as we eat the bread and drink the cup we affirm anew, “Yes, I do believe that Jesus is the Christ. It is he who makes sense of the difficulties and confusions that confront me.”

There is also proclamation to the body of believers who gather together to participate in the Lord’s Supper. It happens when we hear the words, “Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf” (1 Corinthians 10:17). I am reminded that as much as Communion may be an individual experience between God and me, it is also a community activity; it is an affirmation of my participation in the whole body of Christ. Not only do I believe that Jesus is “my personal Savior,” I believe I am a part of the whole body of Christ, the church, wherever and whenever it gathers.

Nonbelievers have often found the church’s participation in the Lord’s Supper curious if not downright strange. And yet every time the church gathers for this sacred occasion we proclaim to the unbelieving world the message of salvation: “God’s love was revealed to you through the sacrificial death of his Son, Jesus Christ.” We are saying, “We believe! Come join us in this faith that leads to life and life eternal.”

Hence when I say at the Lord’s table, “I believe,” I am saying it to myself, and as a congregation we are saying it to each other, while all the time we are proclaiming our faith to the world.

C. Robert Wetzel is chancellor at Emmanuel Christian Seminary, Johnson City, Tennessee. 

By David Ray

When you were little and getting ready to take your seat at the family dinner table, did your mom ask, “Have you washed your hands?” If you had, you probably proudly held them up to show her. But on those rare occasions when she caught you “dirty-handed,” you’d sheepishly have to slip away to put soap and water to work.

As often as we were reminded, we should have remembered to wash our hands every time. But since we are creatures of forgetfulness, or just too preoccupied with other things, that getting ready for the table often got lost in the shuffle. Then, too, there were times we knew our hands were dirty, but we came to the table anyway!

Some in the early church developed a bad habit of coming to the table—the Communion table—without “clean hands.” The apostle Paul, writing to the church in Corinth, said, “A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup” (1 Corinthians 11:28, author emphasis).

It’s important to point out that Paul was not demanding perfection, but calling for preparation. Some of these early believers were coming to the table with indifference or even arrogance. What was supposed to be a reverent and holy gathering was being tainted by hands and hearts unready to handle anything holy.

What about your hands? How are you coming to the table? With a life that’s gone unexamined? Paul told the Corinthians that coming with “dirty hands” invited judgment—not just the stern word of a mother who might send you off to the sink, but of a God whose judgment is a far more serious reckoning.

The Communion table is all about our being forgiven by God, so Paul is not saying all the cleaning up is the product of our own labor. God is the one who makes it possible for us to have clean hands and hearts. But if we treat the sacrifice of Christ with indifference, if we fail to live lives that honor what the cleansing brings, we soil the hands that he died to make clean.

So an important question needs to be asked before you eat the bread and drink from the cup today: How clean are your hands? It can be a deadly thing to come to God with unexamined lives. If you’ve forgotten that all-important truth, you might want to take a prayerful moment, before we all sit down to eat . . . and “wash your hands.”

________________

David Ray is dean of the graduate seminary at Cincinnati Christian University and professor of practical ministries at Cincinnati Christian University.

By Robert F. Hull Jr.

According to the Gospel of John, it was at his last meal with the disciples that Jesus offered them the gift of his peace and told them not to be afraid (John 14:27). But that was before his arrest, trial, and crucifixion.

A few days later they were huddled in a room with the door locked, very much afraid and not at peace. Suddenly the risen Jesus stood before them and said to them, “Peace be with you!” (John 20:19). He showed them his hands and his side, and said again, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you” (v. 21).

That’s a commission to the disciples. Call it “the peace commission.” That is, if you want to be truly at peace with God as a follower of Jesus, you need to consider what Jesus did as an emissary from his Father: what he taught and how he taught it; how he brought the good news of God’s love and healing to all kinds of people. It is the commission of the church to be for the world what Jesus was to Israel—a bringer of light, a pointer to the future God has for the world when people are reconciled to God and each other.

We don’t feel adequate for such a commission; neither did the disciples. Maybe that’s why Jesus then breathed upon them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (v. 22) and told them it was within their power either to offer forgiveness of sins or to withhold this message.

Sobering commission, isn’t it? When Jesus offered his peace yet once more, this time to Thomas, he showed his wounded hands and side to Thomas. At this table, we remember those wounds, the cost of the peace we so freely offer each other every Lord’s Day, “the peace of God, which transcends all understanding” (Philippians 4:7).

Prayer: O God, who, by the death of your Son on the cross, brought peace, hope, and love to a world of dead ends, empower us through the Holy Spirit to embody the love of Christ in our lives. To this end, bless to their intended purposes this loaf and cup we now receive. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Robert F. Hull Jr. serves as professor emeritus of New Testament with Emmanuel Christian Seminary, Johnson City, Tennessee.

By Robert F. Hull Jr.

Sometimes we do not see the wealth of our own church practices until we worship with people whose practices differ from ours. From Easter to Pentecost you will hear in many churches, especially those in the Anglican, Lutheran, and Catholic traditions, the words “remember your baptism.” If you were to worship in some of these churches, you would even see a large vessel of water brought in as a visual reminder of baptism.

It is especially during the season when we focus on the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus that the baptistery and the table seem so close. We remember that Jesus once asked his disciples, James and John, “Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” (Mark 10:38, Revised Standard Version). To “drink the cup” in this sense meant to undergo suffering, and certainly when we drink the cup we remember the Lord’s death. We remember also the words of Paul: “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4, RSV).

Ours is the fellowship of those who have died and been raised with Christ, those who have been cleansed and invited to sit at the table with our risen Lord. Fortunately, we do not need a large bowl of water brought into our churches; we already have a whole tank of water standing by. In the church where I worship, the baptistery and the Lord’s table stand close together. In our hearts and minds, they should never be far apart.

Prayer: Gracious Lord, in your love you made us for yourself, and when we sinned you sent your Son to redeem us and reconcile us to yourself. We celebrate now the memorial of our redemption. Gratefully, we remember our baptisms, in which we died to an old way of life and were raised to a new life.

Thank you for these gifts of the bread and cup that recall to us Jesus’ death and resurrection. Sanctify them by your Holy Spirit that they may be for us the holy food and drink of new and unending life in Christ, through whom we pray. Amen.

Robert F. Hull Jr. serves as professor emeritus of New Testament with Emmanuel Christian Seminary, Johnson City, Tennessee. 

By Robert F. Hull Jr.

In a powerful sermon, Fred Craddock points out that only the reader of Mark’s Gospel really sees Jesus in Gethsemane lying prostrate on the ground and hears him praying for the hour to pass from him (Mark 14:35, 36). Peter, James, and John are all asleep, and because we are awake and reading, we are tempted to be very hard on these three. How could they have fallen asleep, when all Jesus asked of them was to stay awake for a little time while he went away to pray? We can be unforgiving when we are granted the power to see more clearly than the characters in the story can see.

But sometimes the hardest thing is just to stay awake. Staying awake—keeping watch—isn’t really doing much of anything. It’s just not falling asleep. It’s just paying attention when we’re too tired even to care. It’s just being faithful to promises made so long ago we can barely remember what we said. It’s just hanging around to turn off the lights and lock the doors after everybody else has clocked out and gone home. But sometimes the hardest thing is just to stay awake.

And we are devastated with guilt when we fail our spouse, our child, our friend, our Lord—as the disciples must surely have been grief-stricken when they failed, not once, but three times, to keep awake. That was only the beginning of their failures. According to Mark, immediately after Jesus was arrested, “they all forsook him, and fled” (Mark 14: 50, Revised Standard Version). Did they later wonder if Jesus would forgive them? Do we wonder if he will forgive us?

This table is the place to come to when you have fallen asleep in your faith, forgotten your promises, failed yourself, your loved ones, your Lord. If we ask in repentance and faith, he forgives.

Prayer: Most merciful God, who removes our sins as far as the east is from the west, forgive us when we have failed to keep faith with you and with those who look to us to keep watch during their times of grief, pain, and forsakenness. May this loaf and cup nourish us with your living presence and strengthen us for tomorrow’s trials. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Robert F. Hull Jr. serves as professor emeritus of New Testament with Emmanuel Christian Seminary, Johnson City, Tennessee. 

By Robert F. Hull Jr.

“Seeing is believing,” we say, but in the logic of the Gospel of John, it works the other way around: Believing is seeing. It is true Peter and John did not believe Jesus had risen from the dead until they entered the tomb and saw the abandoned grave clothes (John 20:6-8). It is also true Mary Magdalene and 10 of the disciples were permitted to see the risen Lord. But was this a privilege all disciples should have?

Thomas seemed to think so. He wanted the same experience the other disciples had, or an even greater one: not only to see the wounds of Jesus, but to touch them. Otherwise, said he, “I will not (not I cannot, but I will not) believe.” Jesus gave his blessing to Thomas, but he promised an even greater blessing to “those who have not seen and yet believe” (John 20:29, Revised Standard Version).

That promise echoes down the generations to embrace all of us who do not have the luxury of seeing and touching the wounds of Jesus, but who are willing to believe in him and commit ourselves to his way. As 1 Peter 1:8 says: “Without having seen him, you love him; though you do not see him you believe in him and rejoice with unutterable and exalted joy” (RSV).

The story of Thomas reminds us of the two men walking to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-32), who were joined by the risen Lord. Even though they walked and talked with Jesus for some time, they did not recognize him. Jesus later said they were “foolish, and slow of heart to believe” what the Scriptures had taught. But when they sat together at the table and Jesus broke and blessed the bread “their eyes were opened and they recognized him” (24:31).

An old Communion hymn says, “Here, O my Lord, I see Thee face to face. Here would I touch and handle things unseen.” In our breaking of the bread we do not really see Jesus face-to-face, but we know his presence is among us. Perhaps we see him “faith-to-face,” but that’s enough.

Prayer: Almighty God, who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, thank you for the great joy that comes to us through trusting in him. We ask now your blessing on this loaf and this cup that, as we take them in faith, our eyes may be opened to the living presence of Jesus in our midst. To him be all glory and praise. Amen.

Robert F. Hull Jr. serves as professor emeritus of New Testament with Emmanuel Christian Seminary, Johnson City, Tennessee.